la vie rêvée des clowns

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Sunday, April 09, 2017

I want to try to make my own yogurt. Here in SF, I can get Strauss milk in returnable glass bottles, thereby reducing my personal plastic consumption. I would factor in the energy that I would personally use in my home to make this yogurt, but I feel like that would be minimal compared with the overall life cycle of a plastic container of yogurt.

I met a woman at an SF Green Film Festival event who gave me this recipe. It sounds very easy, and I am going to try it out!

Here is the yogurt recipe. The overall idea is to make sure that the milk is the right temperature. Too cold and the bacteria won't grow, too hot and it will kill the bacteria. In my experience, too hot is far more of an issue. If you have a warm place other than your oven (on top of a heating vent in your house?) it doesn't need to be done in the oven. It's just finding a way to keep it warm for the 8 hours.

Ingredients:

1 gallon milk
3 TB from 1 container yogurt (once you start, you can use last week's yogurt)

Heat milk to a boil, turn off immediately. - Allow to cool (usually takes around 1 hour) until you can hold your pinky finger in the milk for 10 seconds (it shouldn't be painful). - Stir in the yogurt - Divide into glass jars (I use big pickle jars, etc; make sure they're clean first) - Put in oven for 8 hours or overnight with pilot light on. If it's not warm in your oven, turn the oven on low until it heats up and then turn off (you can do this throughout the 8 hours, but in my experience, it doesn't need to be done a lot). You want the oven to be around 112 degrees, but it isn't an exact science. - After 8 hours, check that the yogurt has formed. If you leave longer, it will become more sour (just depends on how you like it). You can now move to the fridge!

To make greek yogurt, strain the yogurt in cheese cloth for 1 hour - 2 hours... the longer you strain the thicker it will be.

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Sounds of laughter, shades of life
Are ringing through my opened ears
Inciting and inviting me.
Limitless undying love, which
Shines around me like a million suns,
It calls me on and on across the universe
- John Lennon

Thursday, July 03, 2014

A lot of new faces this year!
These hotties have made a cougar out of KT.
Starting here.
Olivier Giroud, France.
Looks hot in bleu.
Looks hot in a suit.
But I prefer him in this kind of suit.
ALLEZ LES BLEUS!
Moving on to our host country - Brasil!
I got my eye on Thiago Silva. He's got that classic, Latin handsomeness going on.
Dresses up well.
Good kisser.
Bringing it back to the Motherland - Adam Larsen Kwarasey from Ghana.
And goalies rarely take their shirts off, but when they do, OMG.
And speaking of shirts off, Giorgos Karagounis of Greece can't seem to keep his on.
Why should he?
Why should anyone on the Greek National Team for that matter?
Why stop at shirts? That's exactly what the Croatian National Team asked too.
Here's Dejan Lovren ready to take a plunge butt nekkid with the rest of his teammates.
He takes his clothes off on the pitch too.
Back to goalies. One word. MEMO.
He's even hotter when he's cold.
I'm on a goalie kick! (get it? "kick?") Alireza Haghighi from Iran.
Here he is calling us a cab.
And here are the other games he likes to play.
Back to footie. Huge crush on Enner Valencia of Ecuador.
Super cute and he's got skillz!
Bringing it back home to the U.S. of A.! Jermaine Jones wins the tattoo category this year.
But Tim Howard wins for being the BOSS.
And from the team that just might win it this year, Mario Yepes of Colombia.
I like a strong, confident defender.
Especially with long hair and a sincere look in his eye. (Whoa!)
Honorable Mention: Belgium's Divock Origi rides a bike!
And gives good hugs!
And no list would be complete without this guy. If you look up "hot" in any language, you'll see Christiano Ronaldo.
Enjoy the rest of the Cup! And may the best MEN win!

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

2001 began the year that I went through my first massive (and I mean massive) heartbreak. It was also the year I started doing Ashtanga yoga on a regular basis. While my other friends were running marathons and pushing to the extremes at the gym or elsewhere, I learned the concept of ahisma - non-violence toward yourself. This concept led me into directions I never before considered. It led me to self-acceptance and compassion toward others. It led me to the idea that through breathing, I could get through any difficult situation.
And now, 13 years later, I can present this short film I edited for an organization called yogaHOPE. It is a film about women in Haiti who have experienced sexual abuse and trauma, and are learning to heal through yoga and meditation. Please watch this film, and if it moves you, please consider making a year-end donation to yogaHOPE.
Narrated by the amazing, inspirational Amanda Palmer.

Friday, June 15, 2012

I will be presenting a work-in-progress that I'm calling Voyage at Story Vault - The Great Grandfather Club - tomorrow night, Saturday, June 16th in San Francisco.
Voyage shows how older and younger generations connect through the retelling of stories. World travelers perceive the world in a way that you can only get when you leave it all behind to plant your feet down in a foreign land. This is an experience that the narrator of this project and I share.
Louis Gourmeau is an octogenarian from Brittany, France. He is a World War II veteran, our dear family friend, and a natural storyteller.
I first met Louis when I was an exchange student living in France in the 1990s. My great-aunt and cousins encouraged me to meet him, and when I did, I knew they were not mistaken.
Louis loved telling his stories about how he met my great-uncle during World War II, and how he then found his way to New York where he met the love of his life at the Air France counter on Fifth Avenue.
It wasn’t until recently that I thought about documenting Louis’ storytelling. Regretfully, I planned my trip to France too late, as his wonderful wife, Jeanine passed away in October 2011. So I knew that I had to quickly travel to France to capture his oral histories.
In January 2012, I spent over a week in Louis’ country home in Provence filming his stories of World War II, New York in the 1940s, Fifth Avenue, love-at-first-sight, and anecdotes of my very large and eccentric Irish-American family. Feeling devastated and alone by the loss of his wife, Louis came alive again by reliving his happiest moments.
Listening to his stories, I realized how our lives are similar, how I met close friends and created memories when I lived abroad. I remembered that we are all on a similar journey. By listening to Louis’ life, I understood that one day I, too, will be looking back on life, trying to reconnect with its meaning, just like him.
Here's a clip: